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Is it Immoral to kill animals?
I
n recent years numerous questions were raised about the morality of killing
and eating animals. Do animals have right to live and not made to suffer?
Should people stop eating animal meat? Should laws be enacted to protect
animal rights?
This essay suggests the following two theses. 1) Animal rights arguments are not
logically conclusive, 2) Someone may develop reasons in the future, but for now,
there is no morally compelling reason to stop eating animal meat.
I shall address various major arguments for animal rights and their weaknesses.
Animals can suffer and we should minimize suffering of all beings.
First, animal rights activists declare that it is immoral to cause animal suffering and
death. They believe that animals can suffer and avoid pain. As we do not torture
other humans, we should also not cause animal suffering. Killing animals for
human consumption inflicts a large amount of animal suffering in exchange for
fleeting gastronomic pleasure. Instead, we should minimize suffering and promote
the well-being of all living beings.
A critique
Animal rights activists’ argument based on animal suffering is inconclusive
because if we can eliminate animals’ consciousness of suffering, then killing such
animals would not be morally wrong. This can be done by anaesthetizing animals
before slaughter.
Furthermore, in nature, animals kill other animals for food. Obviously, animals
eaten by other animals suffer. If animal suffering is to be minimized, then we are
morally obliged to stop animal predators from killing their preys. But to stop lions
from killing and eating antelopes would cause great suffering for the lions. Imagine
putting a lion on a vegetarian diet! Isn’t it absurd? As we do not consider it wrong
intrinsically for a lion to kill other animals for food, why should we think it is
immoral for a man to kill an animal to feed his family?
By Wyle Tan, September 2014
Page 1
Is it Immoral to kill animals?
Animals have innate rights to life equal to human rights.
Many animal rights activists realized that the argument couched in the terms of
animal suffering is not convincing enough. A more forceful argument from
inherent rights has been proposed. They see their efforts to promote animal rights
as similar to human rights movements. We recognize the immorality of slavery,
racism and gender inequality because there is no justifiable reason to treat other
humans unequally. All human beings are born with equal intrinsic rights.
Humans and animals have many similarities. Both are conscious and have a similar
drive to live. Various studies have shown that animals, like humans, can think
purposefully, feel various emotions and bond with others. So humans should not
regard themselves as in any way superior to animals. Animals are neither our
properties nor slaves to be treated without any rights. Therefore animals, like all
humans, are to be treated with intrinsic rights equally.
As we legally forbid treating others as inferior beings or slaves, we must likewise
at least accord animals the right to live and to be treated compassionately. Humans
have a moral duty not to harm another living being that possesses a will-to-live.
Tom Regan, a strong defender of animal rights, clearly states:
“…all have inherent value, all possess it equally, and all have an equal right to be treated
with respect, to be treated in ways that do not reduce them to the status of things., as if
they existed as resources for others….For either of us to treat the other in ways that fail to
show respect for the other’s independent value is to act immorally, to violate the
individual’s rights.”
(Taken from Tom Regan and Peter Singer, Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2nd edition, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1989.)
In short, humanity is not a superior species. If anyone claims that only humans
have inherent value, he is guilty of “blatant specieism”. Regan insists, “reason - not
sentiment, not emotion - reason compels us to recognize the equal inherent value
of these animals and, with this, their equal right to be treated with respect.”
By Wyle Tan, September 2014
Page 2
Is it Immoral to kill animals?
A critique
To be continued.
By Wyle Tan, September 2014
Page 3